As dry conditions persist in California, residents in San Diego County and around the state have started using water at levels not seen since before the state’s historic drought. In Southern California, usage surpassed pre-drought levels — with some water districts seeing two- and three-fold increases...

Mayor Kevin Faulconer is expanding a San Diego program focused on removing trash and debris from neighborhoods.Since May, “Clean SD” has removed more than 1,000 tons of trash, including 430 tires, 750 shopping carts and 1,900 mattresses and box springs.The Police Department will also increase surveillance...

San Diego is significantly revamping its police officer recruiting.Raises of at least 25 percent haven’t begun to help solve a chronic vacancy crisis.The number of vacancies has surpassed 250 for the first time since the city began focusing on the vacancies in 2012. San Diego’s chronic struggle...

An East County congressional candidate is calling for a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis after a Tel Aviv newspaper published a story about his grandfather’s ties to a terrorist group. Ammar Campa-Najjar, 28, of Jamul, says he never met his grandfather, Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar,...

Former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced endorsements from ten law enforcement organizations on Wednesday as she also unveiled a plan to bolster mental health services in her bid for county supervisor. The endorsements came from police officer unions and prosecutors, including the Deputy...

They say we could use some rain. Why? Let the deluge happen up north. Root for a huge snowpack in the Sierra. Pray for 40 days and 40 nights of rain in the Colorado River Basin. But must we be guilted into acting like we want downpours that wash away parts of the county? Come now. We like sunshine,...

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells announced Tuesday he is running for Congress, challenging long-time Republican incumbent Rep. Duncan Hunter for a hotly-contested district that encompasses much of East County. Wells, who has held the mayoral position since 2013, is seeking to take over the 50th Congressional...

Less than half of voters in Rep. Darrell Issa’s coastal congressional district approve of their representative in the House and President Donald Trump. Results of a San Diego Union-Tribune/10News poll earlier this month by Survey USA found that 44 percent of voters approve of how Issa is doing...

More Politics & Government

In a new poll, Democrat Doug Applegate and Republican Rocky Chávez lead a packed field in the coastal congressional district being vacated by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.Thirty-two percent of voters who said President Donald Trump is their biggest issue are backing Applegate, 9 percent are backing...

A recycling center in Point Loma has raised the ire of local residents who say it has attracted some drug-addled homeless people to the neighborhood who litter and sometimes defecate in public. At the same time, supporters of the business, Prince Recycling, have countered that those causing problems...

San Diego will accelerate and revamp the city’s approach to relocating overhead utility lines underground.Inaccurate schedules and other problems have created community backlash.City officials recently discovered they have 25 percent more lines to bury than they knew. San Diego is accelerating...

Douglas Manchester, a San Diego businessman and President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the Bahamas, has apologized “to any employee who felt uncomfortable or demeaned” during his ownership of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “While I was chairman of the U-T San Diego, I became aware of...

Hundreds of frustrated and angry residents turned out Thursday night for a city-held public forum at Mira Mesa Senior Center to address surging water bills — a long-simmering controversy that has now reached a boiling point. For more than three hours, one resident after another stepped to the microphone...

Politics & Government

Despite facing an $18 million deficit, the San Diego City Council wants money for arts, police and homelessness.Mayor Kevin Faulconer will use the council suggestions to craft the proposed budget he’s scheduled to unveil on April 12.The projected deficit will make it harder for the mayor to include...

In a survey of alumni, I voted to retain the Aztec name as well as the human mascot once known as Monty Montezuma. Instead of a 400-character comment, I’m writing a 650-word column. Let’s begin at the beginning. In the 1920s, San Diego State’s yearbook was dubbed Del Sudoeste to honor the region’s...

Democrat Paul Kerr released his first commercial in his race for Congress this week, and like others from his party running to represent the coastal San Diego district, it introduces voters to candidates who are making their political debuts and takes aim at President Donald Trump. “Enough is enough,...

San Diego has agreed to sell the defunct Pacific Beach Reservoir.Nearby residents say housing planned for the site will damage neighborhood character.The sale is prompting questions whether excess city land parcels could help solve the local housing crisis. San Diego officials agreed to sell the...

LimeBike and Ofo will begin operating dockless bike sharing networks in San Diego on Thursday.The moves come after City Attorney Mara Elliott gave the legal OK.Environmentalists say dockless bike sharing could sharply increase use of bikes for commuting. Fresh off a legal victory, dockless bike...

Former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis held a meeting with reporters on Wednesday to say she will not accept a salary if elected to the Board of Supervisors, and never intended to.Her pledge reiterared something said two weeks ago by her campaign consultant, after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported...

The county of San Diego is bracing itself for the next chapter in a years-long legal saga over its plans to limit greenhouse gases. The board of supervisors unanimously approved on Wednesday its latest iteration of a so-called Climate Action Plan — once again drawing the ire of environmental groups...

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has decided not to schedule a budget hearing after-hours so people who work during the day can testify about how county funding should be spent.Community groups complain that the county policy is shutting out working people from the budget process.Supervisor...

Community leaders laid out a variety of expectations this week for San Diego’s next police chief.The expectations include making the police force more ethnically diverse, boosting transparency and reducing racial profiling.A Feb. 26 City Council confirmation is scheduled for Dave Nisleit, the man...

The city of San Diego continues to take credit, as part of its once-vaunted Climate Action Plan, for reductions in greenhouse gases that didn’t occur, as first revealed by a San Diego Union-Tribune investigation in November. How real is San Diego's Climate Action Plan's progress? » A local nonprofit...

The city of San Diego has a long way to go on its pledge to reduce all traffic fatalities by 2025, known as Vision Zero. The city has an average of about 50 traffic-related fatalities a year, roughly 40 percent of which are pedestrians.More than 500 pedestrians are wounded or seriously injured...

San Diego last year began work on a plan to create 13 new historic districts near Balboa Park.Some homeowners are complaining the districts restrict renovations they can make to their properties.City Council members say the process for creating the districts is flawed and they want changes. San...

The news outlet Politico on Thursday reported that Republicans are worried about Rep. Duncan Hunter — both his conduct in the Capitol and his prospects for re-election.Hunter was accused in the article of drinking, even on the job, and having inappropriate relationships with women in Washington....

A $900 million housing bond for San Diego has moved one step closer to the November ballot.It would be funded by raising taxes on city property owners by an average of $72 per year.A November poll showed 71 percent approval of such a measure, which needs two-third support to pass. A proposed $900...

The city overcharged residents by more than $100,000 in January for water they didn’t use, officials said Thursday following a months-long public outcry over skyrocketing bills. The findings are the result of an internal review by the Public Utilities Department this week that officials said traced...

A petition drive that could significantly change elections for San Diego County offices has received a $100,000 contribution from a labor union. The Service Employees International Union Local 221, the group that represents about 10,000 county government employees, made the contribution to San...

Democratic Party leaders decided last September that labor leader Mickey Kasparian could stay on their governing committee, despite repeated absences.One party activist was hoping the attendance issue would allow the party to oust Kasparian without the ugliness of confronting sexual misconduct...

San Diego is doing its annual zoning code update and plans to loosen rules for opening charter schools, operating food trucks and building small housing projects.The update would outlaw some home-based businesses based on security concerns.It would also allow businesses to establish on-site gyms...

Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry has called for temporary relief for San Diegans who continue to claim the city has charged them for water they didn’t use. Customers fighting high bills should continue to have access to water as long as they pay an amount equal to their average usage or what...

A Mission Valley woman recently ousted from her local planning board for missing meetings says a male board member assaulted her in September and she missed the next few meetings because she feared he might harm her again.The man accused of assault — who works for Sudberry Properties — denies the...

Supporters of the Regents Road connector bridge, which the San Diego City Council deleted from planning maps a year ago, suffered a setback this week when a judge rejected a lawsuit that sought to revive the project. Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal ruled on Monday that the state’s environmental...

San Diegans all over the city have expressed concern that their water bills are unusually high — jumping from hundreds to sometimes thousands of dollars. In the last week, stories have poured into the San Diego Union-Tribune from ratepayers who believe the San Diego Public Utilities Department...

Strong fundraising by challengers in San Diego City Council races is re-shaping the battles for four open seats as campaigning accelerates heading into the June 5 primary. Democrat Jen Campbell has emerged as the leading challenger to incumbent Republican Lorie Zapf in District 2 by raising more...

A sheriff’s deputy has been accused by 14 women of groping them, along with other abuses of power.A commander who is challenging Sheriff Bill Gore’s re-election met with some of the women on his own time.The commander, Dave Myers, was written up by his supervisors. He attributed it to campaign...

The man poised to become San Diego’s next police chief comes from a law enforcement family and says he thinks about police work nearly around the clock, but Dave Nisleit didn’t aspire to be the city’s top cop until late in his career. Nisleit’s father was a 35-year San Diego Police Department veteran...

When she took San Diego’s top cop job four years ago, Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman was working against the clock. She faced mandatory retirement in 2018. That meant less than 1,500 days to make changes in a department mired by claims of sexual misconduct and other crimes by a handful of officers....

The legal team that represented former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in her effort to protect her $268,800 annual pension in case she wins her race for county Board of Supervisors was paid thousands of dollars by the Dumanis campaign, newly filed election reports show. The Bonnie Dumanis for...

Tensions escalated at Chicano Park on Saturday as a small group of park critics waving U.S. flags and gathered for a “Patriot Picnic” faced off against a larger group of park supporters defending the park’s cultural heritage and community importance. There were no direct physical clashes between...

At a breakfast in Southeast San Diego on Saturday, trailblazing California Assemblywoman Shirley Weber said black women need to run for political office so “we can be in a position to tell our story.” That line resonated with attendee Nasheema Harvey, 28, who waited in line after the Women of Color...

Young, first-time candidates are leading two congressional races in campaign finances, putting them in viable positions in this year’s midterm elections. After contributing nearly $1.1 million of her own money into the race, Sara Jacobs, 28, has more money than the three other Democrats running...